Focus is on Japan as vote to ease whaling ban nears

Hurdle remains on hunts located in the Antarctic

June 19, 2010|Jay Alabaster, Associated Press

TOKYO — Nations will consider whether to sanction commercial whale hunts for the first time in a quarter-century next week, a compromise to coax Japan into ending an annual cull of hundreds of the sea mammals in a sanctuary in the Antarctic.

The broader goal at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco that begins Monday is to fix a fractured regulatory system in which a handful of whaling nations operate under a complex set of exemptions.

The focus will be on Japan, the strongest advocate of modern whaling. Even firm opponents are willing to allow limited commercial hunts if Tokyo stops pursuing whales in the southern sanctuary — a hunt allowed in the name of scientific research although much of the catch goes on sale in Japan as meat.

But that appears to be more than the Japanese are willing to concede.

“Japan holds the key, because Japan is the only country that is whaling in the southern ocean, the only country whaling in the sanctuary, the only country doing high-seas, long-distance whaling,’’ said Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group, which supports allowing some whaling.

The effectiveness of the whaling commission, the world’s sole whaling regulator, is at stake. After whaling devastated many species, the commission instituted a ban in 1986, but Japan, Norway, and Iceland harvest animals annually under its various exceptions.

“The moratorium has been one of the single most effective conservation achievements of the century, but it’s not working currently in the sense that several governments can whale completely outside the IWC’s control,’’ said Wendy Elliott, who will lead a group from the WWF at the meeting.

The frigid Antarctic has become the focus of the heated debate. The area was declared a sanctuary in 1994, but Japan hunts there under its scientific exemption. Norway and Iceland conduct much smaller hunts nearer their own coasts, fueling less anger from opponents.

Each year in the Antarctic, Japan’s whalers clash among the ice floes with militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd. On the hunt this year, the Sea Shepherd lost a catamaran in a collision and one member was arrested when he boarded a Japanese whaler at sea.

Antarctic whaling has also boiled over into diplomatic channels. Australia is taking Japan to the International Court of Justice, and the United States and a host of other countries have come out against the Antarctic hunts.

Agreement within the whaling commission appears agonizingly close. Since a proposal was floated in April by the commission’s chairman, some from the anti-whaling side, including the US delegation, Greenpeace, the WWF, and the Pew Group have said they would consider voting to allow limited commercial hunts, and Japan has signaled it may accept taking less whales than it does now.

But in the days leading up to the conference, the sticking point remains the southern sanctuary. Any agreement will be voted on by the full 88 member countries, with the goal to reach complete consensus and eliminate all whaling under objections and exceptions.